Category Archives: Globe Trekker

Nautically Yours, Ian’s Photo Diary from Norway, Part 3

Ian’s adventure’s on the high seas have also been chance for some sketching…and the results are impressive, even moreso considering the wavy days!

Coffee and Curiosity

As Globe Trekker HQ winds down for the holidays, our production team are busy wrapping up an exciting new documentary coming out in the Spring, Coffee – The Drink that Changed America, produced in collaboration with PBS.

Earlier this year the Globe Trekker team were out and about shooting the final sequences at veteran coffee shop, Caffe Vita at Capitol Hill, Seattle – home of American artisan coffee scene. Caffe Vita has been around for 20 years and now operates nine cafes in the Pacific Northwest, a roasteria cafe in New York City, and a cafe in Los Angeles.

Our team was treated to a cupping session – that’s a coffee tasting – and a look at the roasting process.

Next documentary director, Ian Sciacaluga met Mark Pendergrast – author of Uncommon Ground – the definitive history of coffee and Dean Cycon from Dean’s Beans. Dean Cyon has a long history as a lawyer and activist in indigenous rights and through activism, ecological responsibility and innovative direct development programs for twenty years has utilised coffee as a vehicle for progressive change throughout the coffee lands of Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Cherry blossom season in Japan

Spring is in the air, and while it’s a beautiful season everywhere, mid-March through April marks peak cherry blossom season in Japan.

If you can time your trip during cherry blossom season in Japan, you’re in for a treat courtesy Mother Nature herself. For those interested, there’s more information via See Japan and Japan National Tourism.

This week, The Wall Street Journal published a charming pictorial of Japan’s cherry blossoms in years go by – click on the image to view.

Would you love to visit Japan? Take a two minute wander through extraordinary Tokyo here, or read our destination guide.

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

Did you know St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in America in 1737. The event was initially organised by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston, and included a feast and religious service. This first celebration of the holiday in the colonies was a chance for the many Irish to honour and celebrate the heritage which they had been separated from.

In New York, the first modest celebration took place at the home of an Irish protestant. From little things, big things grow though, and the St. Patrick’s Day parades actually started in New York, developed by a group of Irish soldiers in the British military in 1762 who marched down Broadway. This began the tradition of a military theme in the parade.

The holiday eventually evolved from a small, homely religious dinner into the raucous international celebration we know today.

Banished to Australia

There’s a brand new series being released by the BBC early this month, Banished, inspired by events in the eighteenth century when Britain established a penal colony in Australia.

At its heart, Banished is a story of survival.

Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the penal colony of Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, Banished is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. The series depicts tales of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.While no doubt reality held all these elements, there’s so much depth to the history of this time, and what it means to contemporary Australia.

One of our most popular series at Pilot Productions is A Short History of the World: Convict Australia. If Australia is of interest, you too might be fascinated by its evolution; the people, cultures, and when those who were ‘banished’ met with the original keepers of the land.

Watch on demand now.

Happiest place in America?

This week, The Huffington Post announced that Alaska is pretty much the happiest place in America! This beautiful destination offers the highest level of well-being of all the US states. The data measured five categories across all 50 states – purpose, social support, financial status, community and physical health, and Alaska scored tops in all of the above.

Alaska beat out rivals for the top 5 – Hawaii, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. But we already knew this place was special – have you seen the episode when Ian visited?

Globe Trekker Top 10 of 2015

It’s a brand new year and you know what that means… plenty of amazing destinations to dream about and explore! At Globe Trekker HQ we’ve put our heads together to compile a list of ten places we believe are worth adding to your bucket lists in 2015.

Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde

On the international radar this week is Pico do Fogo volcano in CapeVerde, off the coast of West Africa. Pico do Fogo is the highest peak of Cape Verde, rising to nearly 3000 metres above sea level.

The main cone of this active volcano on the island of Fogo last erupted in 1675, although an eruption causing several deaths occurred in 1847, and a subsidiary vent last erupted in November 1995 – until this week, early December 2014, nineteen years later.

Globe Trekker New On DVD

Join Brianna Barnes in Switzerland! Explore the pristine beauty, rich history, and fascinating people of this small yet vastly intriguing destination.

Brianna’s exciting Swiss journey begins in French-speaking Geneva. Travelling by train to the lakeside town of Vevey, she visits Charlie Chaplin’s house and enjoys locally made Swiss wine. From the alpine village of Riederalp, she then hikes the grueling Gemmi Pass before heading to Interlaken where she enrolls in a local dramatic performance and revels in the inspiring landscape.

She then travels to the medieval capital Bern, and to Lake Lucerne, where she is guided around a top secret military fortress. Heading back to the Alps, Brianna visits Devil’s Bridge, the major obstacle to crossing the Alps at the Gotthard Pass, and takes the Glacier Express from Andermatt to Chur.

From Chur she travels to the Swiss capital Zurich, and ends her journey in pastoral Appenzell, where yodeling farmers lead their cattle down from alpine pastures, signifying the end of summer. —Buy it here

Starting in Japan’s beautiful former capital Kyoto, Megan immerses herself in the culture of this island nation. She explores Buddhist temples, World Heritage Sites, and bargains at the city’s best flea market. She then learns the art of Zen meditation and visits the Gion district, home to many of Kyoto’s few hundred remaining Geisha.

She then travels by train to bustling Osaka, and Iga-Ueno, a former ninja stronghold, where she partakes in a “ninja for a day” contest and learns the secrets of these famously skilled assailants. Continuing by train through the Japanese Alps, and by ferry to the remote Sado Island, Megan embraces unique traditions, stunning landscapes, and tasty street food. Finally, in Himeji, she witnesses a dramatic fighting festival, involving a ‘battle’ between heavy portable shrines carried by local villagers in loincloths. —Buy it here

Zay’s journey begins in the town of Meaux, 25 miles from Paris. He then travels to the illuminatingConfrecourt quarries, where French troops took shelter as battles raged on above them.

Zay visits some of the most significant battle sites of the Great War, including Verdun andFromelles.

Outside of Paris, he witnesses an exhilarating air show featuring World War 1 planes. Finally, at Mons in Belgium, Zay visits the poignant St. Symphorien cemetery, where some of the last of the 10 million soldiers to die in the war are buried. —Buy it here

Globe Trekker in Poland

It’s 20 years in the making, but Globe Trekker has finally visited Poland to make the first full one hour show about a country that is maybe not (yet!) on top of the world’s travel destinations.

GLOBE TREKKER IN POLAND

The travel route took presenter, Megan McCormick, and crew from the south-western border with the Czech Republic to the border with Belarus, where Megan enjoyed the last stretches of the journey in a kayak paddling along the Augustow Canal with formidable guide, Agnieszka Zyzalo.

Dwarf hunting in Wroclaw, amber fishing at the Baltic sea shore, Malbork Castle, the educational park in Kashuby, Wolf’s Lair and Czermna Skull Chapel were as much part of the program, as were a healthy number of Polish food and vodka tastings!

A whirlwind stop at the Blow Up Hall 5050 and a fantastic day with the Polish Hussaria made it a trip to remember… most of it is down to the kind and super efficient support of the Polish Film Commission in Warsaw and in Wroclaw, as well as dedicated individuals such as Malbork curator Marek Stokowski, amber artist Zbigniew Strzelcyk, Andrzej Dawidowski and the ever so brilliant Jaroslaw Struczynski from Gniew Castle… thank you all!